: I do have a bit of a concern though. The unique female builds for Spartans in
: every game since Reach have gotten progressively worse. From what was
: reasonable in Reach with Kat and FemSix became rather absurd in Halo 4 and
: Halo 5. I can't say that I'd imagine most female Spartans having such a
: petite build to them. Additionally, armor sets for women are no longer
: form-fitting like they are on male models. They look way too bulky and
: seem like they would restrict movement to a great degree. *

: It's obvious that they downscaled female armor models, at least in Halo 4/5,
: from the male models with little concern for our unique physiology or even
: generally pleasing aesthetics. One legacy set in Halo 5 actually breaks
: that trend and it's Mark IV, coincidentally. Seems like we could be a
: little bulked up. Our curvature is often a little too pronounced and I see
: that to a degree with these representations you've created. Luckily your
: rendition of Mark IV itself looks less like an adaptation for women and
: more akin to a uniquely crafted armor set, stemming from a general design
: concept as it would with men.

(Emphasis mine)

This seems like a "damned if you do, damned if you don't" topic to me.

If they (designers;343 or venerance) make the female features more pronounced, someone is inevitably going to cry "objectification" at the size of hips or a breast plate that has features to make it obvious "boobs under here" .

If they don't put in any distinguishable features then someone else inevitably cries "I can't tell that's a female" and goes off in the other direction.

Star Wars recently had to deal with this exact subject, and they handled it beautifully;

This ^.

This is the only logical, acceptable solution.

Halo needs to be more like this. You can't even tell if they are human (ie; bad cyborg!), much less gender.

Faceless.

Featureless.

Armor is the great equalizer. (a particular reason why I love it for cosplay)

It's a uniform. It makes everyone equal because it makes them look all the same. You can't tell what someone looks like underneath it.

The only way you should be able to tell what sex a Spartan is, is when they talk, or remove their helmet. (Halo 3)

Venerance pretty much nails that.

(For the record, I think Bungie and 343's depictions in Reach and 4\5 are fine. There are far worse directions it could have been taken)